Wednesday, January 28, 2009

Block pieced

It is pieced, but I used my embellisher on all of the seam so the only stitching so far on the block is the black thread for the finished block size guide. I am in love with the creamy soft colors, all of the bead work should show up fantastic against the light background. I also like the curved lines and the various shapes I get when I piece with the embellisher.
I really had no plan for piecing the block. I started out with a 14" square piece of muslin and my fabric choices. My only goal was that the block would not look like a pieced block using the method of starting in the middle with the sew and flip. So I started in one of the corners and mostly cut triangle and trapezoid shapes from fabric, over lap my seams and the zip through the embellisher. The punching needles of the embellisher will cause most silks to pucker a bit and I did have one fabric that I had to remove due to too much puckering. I think of it as adding a bit of texture to the block. And one nice feature of just tacking everything together, I can go back and remove a fabric quite easily.

This will be a 12" finished block, but I am starting with a 14" block. On my last beaded crazy quilt block, I only had a 1/4 inch seam allowance and getting the block perfectly square was difficult with so little wiggle room.
Next I will be adding some of the applique pieces I have planned and again I will be using traditional motifs but all done using Ultrasuede so no turned edges.

I am rethinking the fans I drafted out in a previous post. I think I will wait and see how I like the floral motifs and then decide on the fans.